Michael Nesmith, a singer and guitarist for the popular 1960s pop group The Monkees and star of the eponymous TV show, has died at age 78, his family said in a statement.
“With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes. We ask that you respect our privacy at this time and we thank you for the love and light that all of you have shown him and us,” his family said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Nesmith was born in Houston in 1942. Following a stint in the Air Force, the musician moved to Los Angeles and had some early success in music before auditioning for and landing a role in the band, which was created for the TV show.
Nesmith rode a motorcycle to the audition and wore his trademark green wool hat, which stuck in the minds of producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider.
The band also included Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork, and together, during the days of Beatlemania, the four scored a number of hits, including “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville” and “Daydream Believer.”
“The Monkees” aired for just two seasons, from September 6, 1966, to March 25, 1968. In that time it earned two Emmy Awards, including one for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Dolenz wrote a number of songs for the group, some of which became minor hits. Those include “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” “Mary, Mary” and “Listen to the Band.”
Initially, the Monkees was a band whose members didn’t play their instruments or write many of their songs, something that infuriated both Tork and Nesmith.
Tork would tell of going to an early recording session, only to be told dismissively that session musicians were laying down the musical tracks and all the Monkees had to do was sing.
“I was a hired hand, and I didn’t quite know that, and I didn’t quite get it,” he told The Associated Press in 2000. “I had fantasies of being more important than it turns out I was.”
Eventually he and Nesmith wrested control of the band’s musical fate from Don Kirshner, who had been brought in as the show’s music producer. By the group’s third album, “Headquarters,” the Monkees were playing their instruments and even performed live in Hawaii.
After the show concluded in 1968, the band went on a lengthy concert tour that at one point included Jimi Hendrix as the opening act. But music critics had turned on them. They were dismissed as the PreFab Four, a mocking comparison to the Beatles.
In 1969 Nesmith formed another band, First National Bank, for which he wrote most of the songs. He would go on to be heralded as a pioneer of country rock.
Nesmith later reunited with his Monkees bandmates for several tours and recordings.
Jones died in 2012, followed by Tork in 2019.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.